The Best of 2005 Part One

First, I should qualify my list by saying not everything I read/watched/listened to this year was actually from 2005. Especially with reading, there's so much old and new stuff I want to read, it's tough to make choices. So you'll see quite a few things on the list that didn't come out this year, I just experienced them for the first time in 2005.

I wish I had time to see more films on the big screen, but I just don't. I only saw about a half dozen movies in the theatres. Of those, the best of the lot was Crash, overdone in some ways, but still powerful.

On DVD, I really liked two films from 2003 and 2004, respectively, House of Sand and Fog and a Korean movie recommended by my friend Kelly Shaw, Oldboy.

I've talked to several people who are indifferent towards Bob Dylan, yet were glued to Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home, chronicling Dylan's life and music from 1961-66. In the first few minutes, Scorsese delivers the acoustic Dylan and the electric Dylan, then shows you how they both came to be and how each changed music (and popular culture) forever. I've watched it three times and can't wait to see it again.

I don't buy a lot of new music and probably should expand my listening territory more, but here's what I liked in 2005:

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending - Tears for Fears (2004)
Like a lot of their stuff, it's very approachable pop, but miles better than most of what passes for "pop" these days.

Van Lear Rose – Loretta Lynn (2004)
Fans of Lynn and Jack White (from the White Stripes) probably never dreamed a collaboration would work, but this album has several great cuts. "Portland Oregon" is downright contagious and "Miss Being Mrs." is one of the loneliest country songs ever (and that's saying something).

Now Here is Nowhere – Secret Machines (2004)
Nobody I've talked to has heard of these guys. They're very loosely classified as an alternative Led Zeppelin, but that tag doesn't really fit. If they don't go too commercial, they should continue to produce more good stuff.

No Direction Home: Bootleg Vol. 7 – Bob Dylan (2005)
What can you say? All of the Bootleg volumes are great and this one's no exception, combining some of Bob's early stuff with some nifty alternate versions.

The Way Up – Pat Metheny (2005) Love everything the guy does.

As much as I enjoyed all of these somewhat recent discs, nothing blew me away like Kelly Joe Phelps' Roll Away the Stone (1997), featuring wonderful acoustic blues and powerful vocals that sound like Kelly's stood on the brink of disaster only to find the miracle of redemption. Man, this is good.

Next – Books and stories

Now Playing = Oscar Peterson Christmas
Now Reading = Four and Twenty Blackbirds - Cherie Priest (almost finished)